One of the most dreaded terms in dentistry is “root canal,” but at least we get to enjoy the perks of modern medicine. Now, imagine enduring that painful process nearly 60,000 years ago.

An international team of scientists believes they have found evidence that Neanderthals, the closest relatives of modern humans, deliberately drilled a hole in a lower molar tooth to remove infected tissue.

The discovery represents the oldest known example of invasive dental treatment, and it occurred tens of thousands of years before the earliest known example of dentistry in Homo sapiens.

The news serves as another example showcasing that Neanderthals were remarkably complicated ancient relatives.

“[The medical treatment] brings Neanderthal behaviour closer to modern humans and differentiates that behaviour from the instinctive actions of other primates,” wrote the authors in a study published in PLOS ONE, an open-access science journal, on May 13.